For a long time, the so-svelte Susan didn’t want to quit smoking for fear of gaining weight.

Now that I have a certain amount (!) of middle-age spread, I know I used weight gain as an excuse not to quit. I learned that you’d have to gain approximately 100 pounds to equal the ill effects of smoking a pack a day.

The fact is, 20 percent of people who quit smoking don’t gain weight. And, on average, people only gain 5 to 10 pounds over a period of several months when they kick the habit. Yeah sure, your metabolism may change a bit when you quit and smoking burns about 200 calories a day if you’re a heavy smoker. Want to eliminate those extra 200 calories?

• Skip two tablespoons of butter, two ounces of cheddar cheese, 20 potato chips or one hot dog on a bun.
• Clean your house or garden for 40 minutes, ride your bike at 13 miles an hour for 20 minutes or tote your own golf clubs for 30 minutes.

We’re not talking about a big sacrifice here!

In fact, studies show that 25 percent of smokers who quit lose weight because they stepped up their exercise and watched their diet. Furthermore, you’ll have more energy and lung capacity when you quit, you’ll feel more like walking the dog or going to the gym.

Smoking cessation experts recommend that you don’t diet actively during the first few weeks after you quit smoking because dieting can interfere with the focus you need to quit.

O.K. I can do this.

I really lost focus on limiting my cigarettes over the holiday weekend. We’re remodeling the kitchen, all the kids came over for dinner Sunday and we were slammed with that tsunami of humidity. (Our circa 1926 house has hot-water heat and no central air.) In general, life was chaotic and tiring. I’ll need to prepare for distractions like these.

I pulled out an old photo to show the kids Sunday. It’s of my grandparents and their four children–taken in about 1939. They were a remarkably beautiful family. The photo inspired a conversation about my grandparents and brought back memories of spending Friday nights at their house in the country with my cousin, Rhonda.

After baths, Ronnie and I would plop on the floor in front of the television to watch the “Flintstones.” This was a double treat for me because television time was restricted at home and I loved the “Flintstones”–that “modern Stone Age family…down in Bedrock…a place right out of history.” In fact, I was so fascinated with the “Stone Age” cars and gadgets that my dad gave me a “Flintstones” action set for Christmas.

The “Flintstones” show was sponsored by Winston cigarettes from 1960 to 1962. I still remember the jingle,“Winstons taste good like a cigarette should.” (Dave Barry theorizes that our memory falters as we age because our brains are full of junk like the Winston jingle.)

What’s even weirder than a cigarette company sponsoring a television cartoon is that the cartoon characters actually smoked! Yes, Fred, Barney, Wilma and Betty puffed away on Winstons (streaming video).

It’s tragic that all four people who supplied voices for these characters–Jean Vander Pyl, Bea Benaderet, Mel Blanc and Alan Reed–died of smoking-related diseases.

I’m glad our culture has changed and that my grandkids aren’t watching their favorite cartoon characters smoke.

Waiting for my cessation aids to be approved so I can advance to the next stage of my quit journey. I’m still ready to take the big step.

Habit, emotion and physical desire are the three primary forces that lead us to light up, according to Andee, my smoking cessation counselor. She recommended that I resume the smoking journal (PDF) and identify which of these three factors led to each cigarette. I’ll then revise the smoking journal to accommodate this.

I’ll share a little more detail on these forces:

Habit
These are the cigarettes you light as a matter of course, often without thinking about it. I believe all of my phone-call cigarettes fall under this category.

Emotionally Triggered
Tough cigarettes for me to avoid, these are the smokes you light when you’re upset, stressed-out or exhausted.

Physical Desire
I have a great example of cigarettes you need because of addiction to nicotine: I was traveling from Canada back to Madison with clients. Hours had passed since my last cigarette. We landed in Minneapolis only to find that our connecting flight home had been delayed, with no departure time listed. And the blasted gate had been changed—to the other end of the airport. Exhausted and cross, we schlepped our luggage to the new gate and sat down to wait out the delay. At that point, I really really needed a cigarette. No, I did not smoke in the restroom—but I thought about it.

Since I’m not quitting cold-turkey, Andee recommends dropping cigarettes by their order of difficulty, beginning with the cigarettes I smoke out of habit, then moving to the emotionally triggered cigarettes—saving the physically desired cigarettes for last.

My worse-case scenario? A phone call first thing in the morning, before I’ve had a cigarette, announcing that my mother-in-law is coming for a two-week visit. Hand me a lighter!

I received a call from the Quit Smoking-Your Way! smoking-cessation counselor yesterday.
My counselor’s name is Andee. Since she has an undergraduate degree in sports medicine, a master’s degree in exercise management and a couple years’ experience as a smoking cessation counselor, I’m confident that I’m in good hands!

Andee works for Harris Health Trends, a highly regarded health management company that partners with the Trust on programs like smoking cessation and the health assessment.

What Happens When You Call Quit Smoking-Your Way!

1. Dial (800) 546-9049 and your call will be answered by a counselor who has academic credentials in a health and/or wellness field.
2. You and the counselor will chat about things such as: how ready you are to quit, how much you smoke, your learning style and chooing a smoking cessation aid, if you choose to use one.
3. The counselor will request approval for your smoking cessation aids from the Trust. Please remember: They’re free! You can get a three-month supply of cessation aids, at no charge, when you enroll in this program.
4. When your cessation aids are approved, which should take about two or three days, your counselor will call you back and you’ll be off and running.

Quit Smoking-Your Way! Program Options
Per your preferences, you can choose to participate in the program by one of the three avenues:

1. Telephone
2. Web (includes some telephone support)
3. Self-paced, with a kit sent by mail (includes some telephone support)

I’m waiting for Andee to call and tell me I’m approved for my smoking cessation aids. More about these aids tomorrow.

I’m a gung-ho gardener. But I’m pretty paranoid about pesticides and very careful when I use them. What I didn’t know is that I smoke them.

Following are a few of the more than 4,000 chemicals found in cigarette smoke.

Ammonia
Toxic compound found in explosives, fertilizers, refrigerants and household cleaners, such as the stuff you clean toilets with
Arsenic
Used in rat poisons and weed killers
Benzene
A known carcinogen in DDT (banned insecticide), other insecticides and motor fuel
Butane
Used in lighter fluid and as a refrigerant
Carbon monoxide
Poisonous gas
Cadmium
Coating for trains, planes and offshore mining platforms–also used in batteries
Cyanide
Deadly poison, popular for bumping off rats
Ethyl furoate
Volatile substance that causes liver damage in animals
Formaldehyde
Remember those frogs in biology class? Also an ingredient in foam insulation and adhesives
Lead
Poisonous in high doses
Methoprene
Kills larvae of fire ants, fleas and mosquitoes. Unfortunately, it creates one-legged frogs.
Napthalene
This ingredient in mothballs is also called white tar.
Methyl isocyanate
In 1984, 2000 people died from exposure to this chemical in Bhopal, India.
Polonium
Also called Radium F, this carcinogenic radioactive element was discovered by Marie Curie. Go to the Los Alamos National Labs web site for more information.

In 1940, goddess-of-etiquette Emily Post wrote about smoking in an article in Good Housekeeping magazine. She said, “Those who smoke outnumber those who do not by a hundred to one… (nonsmokers) … must learn to adapt themselves to existing conditions and when they come into contact with smokers, it is scarcely fair that the few should be allowed to prohibit the many from the pursuit of their comforts and their pleasures.”

My mother was strikingly beautiful, quite elegant–and a chain smoker. Mother taught me to waltz, made me walk with a book on my head to improve my posture and thoroughly drilled me on all forms of good manners. Mother also had her own rules of etiquette for smoking, including:

• Never dangle a cigarette from your mouth. When you light a cigarette, maintain contact with the cigarette with one hand and light it with the other.
• Always hold your cigarette between your index finger and middle finger–never between your index finger and thumb.
• Never, ever smoke when walking on the street.

Mother absolutely refused to adapt when smoking became socially unacceptable. She smoked anywhere and around anyone.

She’s been gone three years now and I miss her a lot. I am glad I’m not around her smoking while I’m trying to quit.

Chatting with another Trust smoker this morning, she told me that the patch had been the most effective smoking cessation aid for her in the past. She said the only problem she had with it was a rash that developed where her skin came in contact with the patch. It was one of those rashes that itches so much that you want to claw at it constantly.

After first placing the patch on her upper arm and getting a rash there, she decided to move the patch to her backside, thinking it would probably be fine on a different place on her body. Nope! The rash promptly appeared on her behind, where it itched and itched and itched…all day long…at work.

Stalled
I’ve been having trouble focusing on reducing the number of cigarettes I smoke. The allergies or bug I had all last week moved into my chest over the weekend and I stayed home yesterday. Now I have that cruddy cough–and a bit of a wheeze. Yes, this certainly should be a big nudge that I have to quit smoking. I might well have had no lung involvement without the cigarettes. Instead, feeling lousy has made it harder to monitor my smoking and to keep my resolve strong. Fortunately, back at work today I’ve been showered with support and I’m totally gung-ho to kick the habit again.

Tobacco and Babies - Read This
Ben, my coworker of Melon-mobile fame, sent me an article on a study conducted at the University of Minnesota. Researchers in the university’s cancer center found cancer-causing chemicals associated with tobacco smoke in the urine of infants with parents who smoke. This chemical is only found in people’s urine if they are exposed to tobacco smoke. Even higher levels of the chemical are found in newborns whose mothers smoked when pregnant.

I’m awfully glad I quit smoking when I was pregnant with my children. I sure wish I had never smoked around them.

Do you ever feel like Hester in “The Scarlet Letter”? But you wouldn’t have a red letter A sewn to your clothing-it would be a red S for “smoker.”

Since September 2004, when I began working at the Trust as a health writer, I’ve gone to great lengths to keep my smoking secret from a lot of people here-especially those who work in the health and wellness areas.

I was particularly concerned about hiding my habit from the woman who heads our health care quality and safety program. I enjoy working with her and admire her a great deal. Sue’s smart and athletic, and believes we each have a responsibility to take the steps needed to be healthy. No, no way did I want her to know I smoked.

About 11:30 one day, she called and asked if I’d like to go out for lunch and talk about a project we were in the thick of. I told her that would be great, then she said, “Oh, I rode my bike in today. You don’t mind driving, do you?”

I blurted, “I can drive,” hung up the phone and went into full panic mode. I have a typical smoker’s car: overflowing ash tray, ashes everywhere, orange grime clinging to the windows and ceiling-and that overpowering cigarette aroma.

As I paced back and forth in the office, holding my head and saying, “Oh no! What am I going to do?” over and over again, my youthful pal and coworker, Ben, volunteered that I could take his car.

Now Ben is a fabulous fellow. (I’ve more than just hinted to Ben about the availability of one of my daughters.) But Ben is…well..unique. He’s funny and creative. And he has a giant, colorful watermelon slice on the side of his otherwise unremarkable car. A big, weird watermelon slice. So my choice for driving with Sue to lunch was: the Smoker-mobile or the Melon-mobile.

I don’t recall what I told Sue about why I couldn’t drive my car, but we went to lunch in Ben’s Melon-mobile. I swear, every group of teens we passed waved and hooted at the car.

Before I have my last cigarette, I’m going to take the Smoker-mobile to the carwash and ask them to do an especially good job on the interior. Then I’m going to take the ashtray out–and tuck it away in the garage somewhere. I’ll also remove all ashtrays and lighters from the house.

A couple of years ago I nearly quit smoking. At that time, I found it helpful to have things I could hold in my hand or stick in my mouth in place of a cigarette. I’ve collected a list of options:

Substitutes that Feel More Like Cigarettes

• A plastic straw cut to the length of a cigarette
• Cinnamon sticks (the real deal, available in the spices section of most grocery stores)
• Carrot or celery sticks
• Sugar-free hard candy sticks
• Licorice sticks

Other Oral Options

• Crunchy fruit or vegetables
• Sugarless gum, mints or candy
• Your little finger

Distractions

When your smoking triggers are pulled, distraction can be the best solution.

• Watch a movie or television
• Go for a walk
• Do jumping jacks or jump a rope until you can no longer breathe, much less smoke (or any form of exercise)
• Soak in a hot bath
• Read a book or magazine
• Plan a vacation
• Get on the computer and research a pet topic or email friends
• Do a jigsaw puzzle or dimensional puzzle
• Do a crossword puzzle or sudoku
• Pick up a book of brainteaser exercises

Have any ideas to share? Please help us out and send them in.

This isn’t a rant about the cigarette companies. It’s all about family.

My dad’s name is Phillip Morris. My mother’s maiden name was Williamson and her grandmother was a Brown.

Now, my father has nothing to do with the tobacco company, but the family genealogy buff says we do have a distant connection the Williamsons of Brown & Williamson.

My mother’s parents were warm, wonderful, down-to-earth people from the hills of southern Indiana. My grandfather was a history teacher. Many of my best childhood memories are of visits to their home in the country.

My least-favorite memory of my grandparents is of riding in their car on the twisting roads, up and down the hills, with both of them smoking and me fighting carsickness.

My grandfather struggled with congestive heart failure the final years of his life. Not long after he passed away, my grandmother followed. It could have been her emphysema, but we all thought she just wanted to be with my grandfather. Of course, smoking was a factor with each of their diseases.

Suspended!

During my final two weeks of high school, I was caught smoking on school grounds. Now, I didn’t get nabbed by just anyone-it was himself, the principal! I was 17 and my parents, both smokers, had given up trying to force me to quit.

I was suspended for one day. I’ll have to admit it was great. Mother gave me the car and my friends and I went to the beach. (We lived in southern California.)

Smoking seemed like a good way to be rebellious when I was in high school. At that time, I never envisioned being a middle-aged woman–still trying to quit.
I’m still waiting for the next steps in the Quit Smoking-Your Way! program. Stay tuned.